(Morcster Chef) What any adventurer would do - Ch. 93 (Patreon)

“Or escape through the smaller entrances,” Malissa said. “Let’s not forget that part. It’s nice to remember we’ve got another way out.”

“Only if we can find it,” Belmont said. “They’re notoriously difficult to locate.”

“Happy thoughts. Visualize success,” Malissa muttered. “Arek’s guess makes enough sense for me to agree, but what now? If this is some magic escape route, we still don’t know how to use it.”

“Well, it’s magical,” Arek said. “Couldn’t Ming just blast it? Pure magic should be able to run any magical construct, right?”

They all turned to stare at the small mage. Ming tilted her head, considering the arch for a few moments.

“I guess I could,” Ming said. “It would probably need more of a steady flow than a short blast, but I could do that.”

“I don’t have a better idea,” Malissa said.

Belmont pressed his lips together. He shook his head and let out a sigh, offering them a shrug. He raised a hand to his head and squeezed his eyes shut. The armored man grimaced and pain wracked through his features. Then he shook his head, brushing off whatever had come over him.

“Headache,” Belmont explained. “And I don’t like the idea of messing with this. However, if Arek guessed right, we’re dealing with some intelligent monsters. If they had something like this, it’s very likely that their kill switch would do more than just cave in the boss room.”

“Well, that’s reassuring,” Malissa said, peering below them again. “I vote Ming zaps the arch. If we don’t get out of here or get something to punch within the next hour, I’m going to lose my mind.”

Arek and Belmont gave Ming a nod as well. The small mage swallowed, then pointed her staff at the arch and narrowed her eyes. Light blue energy gathered at the tip of the wood as she drew in a slow breath.

She approached the arch and held the tip of the staff to the obsidian. The light dimmed slightly and Ming frowned. She narrowed her eyes and leaned inwards, drawing more energy through the staff. As the pure magic grew brighter, the glowing runes on the arch flickered.

“It’s doing something,” Belmont warned. “Be ready.”

As one, all the runes flickered out. A low hum filled the room as the rune at the bottom left segment of the arch lit up. It was followed by the rune at the bottom right. The humming grew louder as runes lit up one by one until only the three at the very top remained unlit.

The rune at the top left lit for a second, then went out just as the one at the very center turned on. The center then turned off as the one to its right activated. The pattern continued, even as the droning noise filling the room grew to a dull scream.

“I think it’s selecting a destination! Keep contact and hold your breath!” Belmont yelled, grabbing Malissa and Arek’s hands.

The orc lunged forward, dragging Belmont into the air behind him. He threw his cleaver to the side and grabbed Ming by the shoulder just as the light on the arch flared in intensity, burning the room away in a violent green flash.

Arek’s ears were still ringing when the four of them were dumped in an unceremonious pile on hard ground. The orc rolled to the side and leapt to his feet, staggering as a dizzy spell threatened to send him back to the floor.

They’d arrived in a circular room. It was significantly larger than the previous room. An identical obsidian arch sat in the center on a small pedestal of raised stone. The runes flickered with green light. They were almost completely faded. A dozen large metal chests rested along the curved walls. Three of the chests had already been opened and were empty, but the others appeared untouched.

“Another room?” Malissa complained. “Fantastic. Should we just power the arch again?”

“Not yet!” Ming said, pointing at one of the sealed chests. “Are you telling me you don’t want loot? We got scammed out of most of the boss’s stuff, but there are a bunch of chests here. Chests mean cool stuff.”

“I find my life to be the coolest stuff,” Belmont said, but he peered past Ming’s head to get a better look at the chest she was looking at. “However, the items here might have significant value, both monetary and historically.”

“Are we really considering trying to loot the chests while we’re trying to escape a possible death trap?” Arek asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We’re adventurers. What do you expect?” Ming asked. “I like money.”

“Oh, I’m not blaming you,” Arek said. “Just getting ammunition to win arguments with later.”

The Happy Sunflowers approached the nearest chest, stopping several feet away from it. The lid looked heavy, but not excessively so.

“Someone’s clearly been here before,” Belmont said. “Why would they only open three chests?”

“Traps?” Malissa offered. “Maybe they got scared off.”

“Or they were running and didn’t have time to get anything else,” Arek said. He reached for the comforting handle of his cleaver, but stopped as he remembered it was currently resting on the floor – at the other side of the portal.

Belmont raised a hand to his head again as another grimace washed across his features. He gritted his teeth and swore under his breath, massaging his temple as gently as he could with a gauntleted hand.

“How about we don’t push our luck, then,” Belmont said. “The last portal took exactly ten seconds to activate – I counted. Notice that there are four of us, and one person is needed to turn the portal on. Typical adventuring groups have four to five people, and three chests were opened already…”

“You think the last group that came through here were also adventurers?” Arek guessed. “So we have Ming activate the portal while we each try to open a chest and grab whatever’s in it?”

“Correct,” Belmont said. “However, I’ll eat a shoe if these chests aren’t trapped. We should expect things to go south very quickly. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good way of figuring out what the traps are. However, I should be able to heal most things short of death if we have enough time. I’ll shield all of us with my original bubble spell. It’ll probably break in a second or two due to the magical strain, but that should be enough to block most things.”

“Works for me,” Arek said.

Malissa and Ming nodded as well. Ming took up position beside the arch while the other three each stood beside one of the chests.

“The moment you start channeling pure magic, we open the chests,” Malissa said. “Only grab what you can hold with one hand and regroup as fast as possible.”

“I’m starting in five seconds,” Ming said. She started counting down. When she hit three, Belmont raised his staff. By the time the small mage reached one, a pink shield formed around everyone other than Ming.

Arek grabbed the lid of the chest and heaved upwards as Ming finished her countdown and the room lit up with her light blue energy. It was heavy, but the orc’s battle hardened muscles had dealt with worse.

It creaked open and slammed against the wall behind it. A beam of grey energy ripped out from within the chest. It slammed into the pink shield and both spells vanished in a pop. The orc took an instant to glance inside the chest to make sure he wasn’t about to grab another trap.

Within the chest was a small wooden box and a strange metal bar. The bar seemed to have some carvings on it, but Arek didn’t have time to look closer. He grabbed both items and dashed back to stand beside Ming.

Belmont and Malissa weren’t far behind. A thin stream of blood ran down Malissa’s cheek and a large axe was protruding from Belmont’s armored shoulder. The light coming from the runes was rapidly growing in intensity.

Arek only had an instant to link up with the others before he was blinded. The screaming buzz of the portal reached its crescendo, and then they were falling, wind tearing past their hair and howling in their ears.